Thursday, December 1, 2011

Northern Arizona and Idaho State At The Bottom Of The Big Sky

On Wednesday night, Idaho State traveled to take on New Mexico while Northern Arizona took on BYU in a neutral court game. Nobody really expected them to win, but it would have been nice to see them keep the games competitive.

Unfortunately, both got blown out. New Mexico beat Idaho State 65-41, while BYU dispatched of Northern Arizona 87-52. There are a couple positive if you look hard (for example, Melvin Morgan had his third straight 20+ point effort, scoring 23 of the Bengals' 41 points), but neither team has to be feeling good at all about how their early season has gone.

Both teams are without a Division I victory, and I am not sure when the first one will be coming for either squad. Idaho State has been close to a couple (against Oklahoma and Loyola Marymount), while Northern Arizona has been blown out by every D1 team they have played this year. It is hard to see anything but long seasons in Flagstaff and Pocatello.

The light at the end of the tunnel for Idaho State fans is that it is hard to see Joe O'Brien lasting past this season, and they should get the coaching change they have been wanting. The light at the end of the tunnel for Northern Arizona fans is that they have an extremely young team that should get better as the season goes on, and should be much improved next year with another season of good coaching from Adras.

However, both of those lights appear really dim right now for fan bases that will have to get used to a lot of losing this season.

Yeah and all O'Brien talked about with him was how he was the best passing PG he had recruited in his time at Idaho State... either he was way off or it is taking Morgan a lot of time to get others involved. He is not making plays for his teammates so far.

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I am a University of North Dakota alum, Denver resident, and college basketball lover. Email me at bigskybball@gmail.com for links, comments, tips, advertising, etc

For the end of the 2015-16 season, Kyle Franko will be taking over the site. He is a former Idaho State beat writer that loves the Big Sky! Email him with any questions, tips, or comments at kyle.franko3@gmail.com